Apple follows Microsoft out of the advertising business

Apple is essentially abandoning its six-year foray into the ad
business, getting rid of the direct sales force it used to sell
ads in its iAd platform and turning the platform over to
publishers, reports John
Paczkowski at Buzzfeed.

Apple launched iAd in 2010 as a way for companies to buy
interactive ads within iPhone and iPad apps. But it never took
off, and a source told Buzzfeed that the decision was a long time
coming.

iAd won't die, but instead it's turning into a self-serve
platform, so publishers will be responsible for creating,
selling, and managing ads, and will keep all the revenue from
them.

Microsoft has been making a
similar move away from advertising over the last
year, turning over its direct sales force to AOL, and
selling various other platform technologies to companies like
Facebook and
ad tech company AppNexus, although it's still heavily
involved .

The takeaway? Last decade, a lot of old line tech companies
looked at Google's success and concluded that they, too, needed
an online ad component. Now, they're realizing that it's a harder
business than they thought, and they're going back to focus on
their core.